Here is a short tale of an unsung hero who quite literally "Saved the World." Here the story of Vassily Arkhipov...

 

So close to nuclear annihilation and a story that I expect few know.

This probably happened many times.  I remember a story of a Russian missile tech whose instruments told him the Americans had launched, and it was his duty to launch as well.  He suspected an instrument error and decided on his own not to launch.  Thankfully.

Hook

Edited December 4, 20241 yr by LHookins

That would be Stanislav Petrov. Another hero, forgotten in the pages of history. He was similarly a Soviet Air Defense colonel, who in 1983, was alerted that a missile had been launched from the United States, followed by up to four more. Petrov judged the reports to be a false alarm and cancelled retaliatory measures, saving the world from nuclear Armageddon.

7 hours ago, stans said:

So close to nuclear annihilation and a story that I expect few know.

To be honest, I only learned about this last evening after I got home from my Amateur Radio club's Christmas party.

Right at this moment we're closer to a nuclear exchange than many realize.  We're talking Cuban Missile Crisis close, and maybe closer than that. 

To make matters worse, we have a certain country openly threatening to use nukes, and a U.S. General telling the media that U.S. Nuclear Forces are "prepared for any mission". 

I'm astonished at the cavalier attitude of the people in charge in both the U.S. and Europe where war and nuclear weapons are concerned.

Dave

Sounds like the HBO film By Dawn's Early Light, based on the novel Trinity's Light.

 

12 hours ago, dave2013 said:

Right at this moment we're closer to a nuclear exchange than many realize.  We're talking Cuban Missile Crisis close, and maybe closer than that. 

To make matters worse, we have a certain country openly threatening to use nukes, and a U.S. General telling the media that U.S. Nuclear Forces are "prepared for any mission". 

I'm astonished at the cavalier attitude of the people in charge in both the U.S. and Europe where war and nuclear weapons are concerned.

Dave

I agree, it seems that some of our leaders think that nuclear weapons would never be used, but I'm not entirely convinced that these leaders are correct.

33 minutes ago, stans said:

I agree, it seems that some of our leaders think that nuclear weapons would never be used, but I'm not entirely convinced that these leaders are correct.

Oh, it's much, much worse than that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_LeMay

"LeMay voiced his belief that there were many situations where the use of nuclear weapons would be efficient and that dropping nuclear bombs would result in positive outcomes for the environment." -- 1968.

Hook

I don’t remember leaders ever rattling nukes like they are today. Even during the Cold War they seemed to have better sense than to lay them out as leverage except a time or two during crisis. Now they often seem to come up as a threat. 
There is a Biblical prophecy about a great city referred to as Babylon the Great. Not the Babylon of old because this great city is a sea port and world center of commerce trade and the arts. “ In one hour is your destruction come upon you “. 
It tells of ships at sea seeing the smoke of her destruction rising up while merchants bewail her. “Babylon the Great is fallen is fallen that Great City is fallen.” What city of today fits that description? I have my guess.

Remember this was recorded over two thousand years ago.

15 hours ago, Patco Lch said:

I don’t remember leaders ever rattling nukes like they are today. Even during the Cold War they seemed to have better sense than to lay them out as leverage except a time or two during crisis. Now they often seem to come up as a threat. 
There is a Biblical prophecy about a great city referred to as Babylon the Great. Not the Babylon of old because this great city is a sea port and world center of commerce trade and the arts. “ In one hour is your destruction come upon you “. 
It tells of ships at sea seeing the smoke of her destruction rising up while merchants bewail her. “Babylon the Great is fallen is fallen that Great City is fallen.” What city of today fits that description? I have my guess.

Remember this was recorded over two thousand years ago.

Yep, I'm wondering...

The generations that still remember Hiroshima and the Cuban missile crisis and the Berlin Wall are carrying those memories to their graves.  We are so used to being at war (Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Gaza....) that we have developed a cavalier attitude toward war and the suffering of others.

I was a young man when I went to Korea as a Marine.  A little older when I went to Vietnam in the Air Force.  And older yet when I was called up in the Colorado Air National Guard for Desert Storm.

But in a couple of weeks I turn 91 and see a world gone nuts.  Whatever is in store for us won't affect me much, but my grandkids and great grandkids might have to bear the brunt of our mistakes.

Noel